But one of the biggest topics of the day today, the republican tax plan. The white house aides on a media blitz this morning to sell the proposal insist it is a middle class miracle. But critics charge it will be an equal a middle class nightmare. We are spending an awful lot of time on the low income and the middle income families. This is rich people that pay for the Republican Party wanting taxes cut. This is donald trump trying top end the estate tax so he can pass along his wealth to his children. Well, as i said before, the president is committed that this is really about a middle income tax cut. Were going to give people who are wealthy even more money and theyre somehow going to make Wise Investments that havent been there for the last ten years. To say that this is going to create Economic Growth is like a triple bank shot. Our tax plan is purely aimed at middle clags families. A typical family of four earning 35,000 today is going to have a substantial tax decrease. It seems like another big trickle down tax cut paid for with deaf set financing. One of the big skeptics of the plan could be the president himself. This morning axios had this headline. Trump skeptical of his own tax plan. He has built an escape hatch and that just before his big trip to indiana yesterday trump resisted the framework cooked up by congressional leaders and his own economic advisers. Nevertheless he took on democratic criticism of the bill earlier today. Weeting, quote, democrats dont want massive tax cuts. How does that win elections . Great reviews for tax cut and reform bill. Side note, theres no actual bill yet. So can republicans count on President Trump to stick by the plan or is he already looking for someone to blame if it fails . There is, as usual, a lot to get to today. So lets hit the ground running with our team of reporters. Kelly odonnell is at the white house. Garrett headache is on capitol hill. Msnbc host ali velshi joins me now from our studios in new york. The tax plan didnt meet the president s standards, why in the world is he pushing it . Well, i think he does believe that it is the best chance republicans might have to revive his stalled legislative agenda and its an area and we saw it in indianapolis. I was there on that trip where you could see the president is a bit more comfortable with the content. More familiar with some of the details of the tax code, and so its an area where he thinks there is the potential for bipartisanship. So sort of goading democrats in his tweet, trying to remind them that many democratic voters would like a tax cut. Politically it is often very popular. Of course then when you do the overall math and you look at who really benefits most and the wealthy almost always benefit the most and then theres the impact on the deficit, you start to factor those things in and it can get more kpliktd to achieve democratic support. But at least in a middle class zone there are democrats who would support it. So the president has said this is something where hes got to again lean on those in congress to do something they have not been able to do so far is bring him something that he would identify as a win. So the president would have liked a different corporate rate, but he can handle it, he says, at 20 ment he thinks that will be sufficient. So perhaps hes setting up some of the deal making side that he would want to try to achieve with democrats. He certainly teased the indiana democrat who was in the audience and said nice things about being there with the president about if he doesnt support it theyll come and campaign against him. Theres this push pull. Should democrats get on board, should republicans do what he wants. But this is something where he thinks theres potential to maybe get something done. Not reform probably. Cuts possibly. Well see. Katy. So theyre on the defensive or even the offensive with the tax plan, but theyre also on the defensive when it comes to the president s response to puerto rico. Kelly, how is the white house trying to fix that today . Well, they are talking about some of the resources that have gone to the area there, some already on the ground in puerto rico and others that are moving in terms of like the comfort vessel of the United States navy that many people asked why wasnt it already on its way leaving nor to come headed south. Also about 10,000 first responders. About 4. 6 million liters of water has been delivered. The president is talking about it more. We saw how he filled his twitter feed and did other things talking about the nfl controversy or stoking that perhaps and after claiming so much credit for what had happened in the response to texas and louisiana, now theyre recognizing this isnt something thats going to be solved overnight, and theyre trying to show more focus and shift more resources there. Katy. More on puerto rico later in the area. Ali velshi, the president has said that this tax plan does not benefit himself or the wealthy. Last i checked the estate tax benefits the wealthy a lot and donald trump has a number of pass through companies that will benefit from this plan swm. Am i wrong . No. In fact, what donald trump said is patently false about this. For facts sake, the claim he said, quote, i think theres very little benefit for people of wealth in this tax plan. Lets break this down for you. You mentioned some of it. First of all, the estate tax, the proposal to eliminate the benefits exclusively the super rich. Dont let anybody tell you otherwise. Theres to tax about family farms that have to be sold. You do not pay tax unless the estate that you are transferring to your hairs is worth more than 5. 49 million. Theres nothing middle class about that at all. That is rich. So estate tax elimination by the way which his family would be sunl to as well would benefit from. Reducing the top margin altax rate from there are some people in the 200, 250,000 Year Category in new york or new jersey will argue theyre middle class. Generally speaking its the top five of earners who are going to see their income tax go from 39. 6 to the third thing is the pass through companies that you just mentioned. Donald trump has a bunch of them. Lots of americans have pass through companies where you take money in on a company name, you deduct the deductions that are associated with that and then you pay tax. Generally speaking at the 39. 6 or whatever your federal income tax rate is. Theyre going to reduce this now to 25 . Here is the thing. While he talks about this as benefiting most Small Businesses, the vast majority of companies that do this as a pass through have incomes in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, again, this is another example of the fact that it is about rich people. And finally, the alternative minimum taxment as you know, we dont have much information on Donald Trumps personal taxes, but we did get one year of information. And if you eliminate the alternative minimum tax, it largely has an impact on people earning 2 hundred,000 to a Million Dollars a year. Again, 2 hundred,000, theres still some people you might consider middle class for a household in high cost parts of the country, but fundamentally this is a benefit to the rach. And in that one tax return from 2005 of Donald Trumps, he paid 31 million more because of the alternative minimum tax than he would have paid if it wasnt there. So whatever you think about this tax bill, this tax proposal suggesting that the rich dont benefit from it is an absolute pants on fire false. Katy. Ali velshi. Earlier today or actually yesterday gary cohn chief economic adviser excuse me, this morning, i should say, if this plan is going to lower taxes definitively for the middle class, no exceptions. Take a listen. You cant guarantee that no milled class family will get a tax increase. There will be middle class families who get a tax increase under your plan, correct . George, theres an exception to every rule. So thats a yes. Look, i cant guarantee anything. Is this going to be problematic, amber . Yeah. Absolutely. You said it best, katy. They dont have a bill yet, right. So what they presented yesterday was like a bunch of tax cuts. Framework. An idea of what they wanted to do. Exactly. Wouldnt it be great if we could say here is tax cuts for a Small Business, for middle class, you know, for corporations which we think will help growth. The problem is how do you pay for that, right . Republicans are the party, they like to present themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility. When you get into the details, its really, really tough. Because if you wanted to lower the tax rate for a Small Business, which paul ryan was talking about today as a selling point, to pay for that the options are you could cut that same Small Business owners deductions he can take for his children, the interest he pays on the state and local taxes, his mortgage Interest Deduction. Its not as simple as just saying were going to cut this tax rate for the middle class and thfr the middle class doesnt have to pay higher taxes. Where does that money come from if youre going to cut those taxes, though . Youre going to do these broad sweeping changes, where does the money come from to pay for those cuts . Right. Exactly. We dont know. Weapon dont know. We need to figure that out. Id like to real quickly think of this tax plan as a Peanut Butter and jelly sandwich. Republicans just presented this framework of here is the jelly look how great these tax cuts would be but they dont have the part to make this stick, the Peanut Butter this is how theyre going to pay for this. Thats going to come in the months ahead. Its going to be sticky. Garrett, talking about making it stick, the president has wafld on a lot of things that republicans have tried to take up in congress, health care being the biggest one. He hasnt quite you know, he called the house healthcare bill mean at one point. Are they worried that the president is not going to sell this plan with as much verv as they might need him to in order to get this done. From Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches to waffles. This segment is making me hungry. Look, the republicans are keebl aware that the president may not be with them all the way through on this. As you mentioned, the house healthcare bill he turned around and called mean after the fact. There was the deal he struck with Democratic Leaders on the sort of fiscal bargain here on the hill. The difference between those examples and this is as kelly pointed out efrlier, the approximated is much more ingrajd on this issue. Goes back months to make sure theyre still on the same page. Ill give you my own analogy. I call it the Dessert First plan. Here is all the things we know you will like. Now its congresss responsibility to figure out how to pay for it. Thats all the vegetables and stuff that they dont think youre going to like. So what i think congressional leaders is worried about here is donald trump ends up playing good cop supporting tax cuts. Congress gets blamed for the unpopular work that has to be done to make them pay for and passed. Garrett hake, thank you. And amber your colleague at the Washington Post talking about a political weekend donald trump. You saw what happened with roy moore. He endorsed Luther Strange. He hasnt gotten anything with health care done, no major legislatively victories for the president so far. How is that going to play in this current fight on taxes and ill read a quote from the article. His political vitality amid his party in next terms midterm elections suddenly stands in question. Yeah. Nobody wants to be the next Luther Strange the zbie who had the entire republican establishment and the president himself backing him to try to get him to win. I think this compounds the tax reform debate in two different ways. One, it makes the president really frustrated, even more than hes already been and less likely to compromise perhaps. We saw his administration draw a line in the sand. 20 Corporate Tax rate. What if congress cant do that . The other thing is you have a bunch of republicans in congress who like i said do not want to be primaried. They want to know if they have a tough vote and there will be tough votes if you want to get a tax reform package done the president has their back. Each if he has their back, does that mean that they are going to get reelected. Look at Luther Strange. He campaigned for him once in Luther Stranges presence even though he was only on stage for a couple of minutes. And he tweeted about him quite a bit, but ultimately trumps voters felt that roy moore was a much better fit. So what does that mean for those moderate Establishment Republicans who might be going up for reelection in 2018 . Is that why were seeing so many of them decide, hey, im not going to run. Identify got to wrap it here. Im getting a hard rap in my ear from my producers. Guys, thank you very much. Im joined now by republican congressman Chris Stewart of utah. Congressman, always wonderful and lovely to see you. Lets talk about taxes. Yep. According to the committee for a responsible federal budget, the gop tax plan adds 2. 2 trillion to the deficit. Are you okay with that . Well, im okay with that because i dont actually agree with that analysis. Youll see im smiling today and sometimes when weve talked i have havent been smiling as broadly. This is good for the American People. This is good for our economy. And frankly, its good for republicans and democrats. I was listening to your conversations before, and i think some of these folks, my heavens, i wish i could engage them in more time in a debate. Its easy to say well, theres this, this and this. But this is good for people. This is good for the middle class. Its good for people who struggle day to day, paycheck to paycheck. How are you going to pay for these cuts . I think the primary means, this is so important and you do this and you get such meaningful Economic Growth and thats the way were going to pay for it. We can did you tell here and there and republicans have been trying to do that for years as far as cut spending, but the more meaningful way to cut our deficit is through Economic Growth. Youre basically saying trickle down economics. No, not at all. I know people say that and its too bad because its become where is the evidence that you have that will show that a tax plan like this thats going to add according to that analysis, i know you dont agree to it, 2. 2 trillion to the deficit how thats going to pay did i have tends in a boosted economy. Theres so much evidence about that. Theres so many studies that i can point to. Like what . Let me point out this very clearly. Not only does this allow people to pay less money in taxes, but the more important thing is the growth in the economy. And for an average family of four making about 50 or 5 it,000 a year, that growth in the economy, not only does it reduce the deficit, beauty it means an additional 7,000 a year to that family. Thats not tax savings. The thats actual outcome from the economy growing, from wages growing and from more jobs. I think thats the most exciting part of this tax plan, the stimulus and the growth that it creates. What youre looking at because the ones weve seen have shown that this is not going to work essentially until there is an idea for how this gets paid for with all of those drastic cuts. And then secondarily, i want to ask you about the cut for the wealthy. Do you think that this is a plan that inordinately helps the wealthy as opposed to helping the middle class and the lower income clagsz . Youve asked a lot there. No, it doesnt inorder antel hit the wealthy. Its a benefit for every american, including those in the very lowest income categories. This is a tax cut for every american, republican, democrat, inds pents. And honestly im glad im a democrat not arguing for that because most americans think the government keeps too much of my money. Heritage, the congressional budget office, american enterprise, there are numerous scholar well respected studies that show very clearly the cbo hasnt scored this up yet. No. But im talking about the general idea that you get Economic Growth from stimulus tax packages. And thats exactly what this is. What about making it so that there is no estate tax . The estate tax benefits the wealthy . Yeah. Donald trump says hes worth 10 billion. The estate tax would save his kids 4 billion. Well, okay. So you can say that if you dont want donald trump to have a tax cut, therefore im going to vote against his package that helps 310 million americans, i guess thats one reason. I think its a silly reasonable. And one of your other previous, guests talked about farmers. I grew up farming and ranching. Its still in my family. I can show you thousands of family farmers who are making middle income if that but because theyve had the land in their family for generation, its worth a lot of money. Now, if when they pass away to pass that on to their children, it falls under this death tax, which the only taxable thing they did was pass away. Theyve already paid taxes on that money. Theyve saved and been careful and accrued that wealth and now the government comes and says were going to take half of it. Most americans look at the death tax and think its fundamentally unfair. And, again, katy, i just think its i dont want to make the argument that because this benefits a few people who are rich that its take bad policy when it also benefits so many middle americans. Those are the people were really trying to focus on right now. Well, been i didnt sar lesson who works for nbc news. Com does a lot of analysis for us has a big write up on who this benefits and does not benefit. This could mean that some middle class families could see their taxes go up. Married couple with two kids earning under 79,583ed a year would pay more under the trump plan than under existing law. Congressman, i want to get you to react to all of that, but i also want to get you to react to Something Else that happened today. An important thing. Just hold on for just a second. On capitol hill this morning congressman steve scalise, who was shot at a congressional baseball practice over the summer got a warm welcome back. Take a listen. [applause] members of congress, both parties, stood up as the majority whip made his way to the floor. Some three months after he nearly lost his life. He told our capitol hill steam right before he walked in that his return is proof that if you fight and per certificate veer you can overcome anything. Something he under scored to his colleagues moments later. When i was laying out on that ball field, the first thing i did once i was down and i couldnt move anymore is i just started to pray. And ill tell you it gave me an unbelievable sense of calm knowing at that point it was in gods hands. But i prayed for very specific things. And i will tell you, pretty much every one of those prayers was answered, and they were some pretty challenging prayers i was putting in gods hands. But he really did deliver for me and my family, ask it just gives you that renewed faith in understanding that the power of prayer is something that you just cannot under estimate. Congressman, i want to get your reaction to your colleague coming back today. Yeah. Katy, thanks for taking a moment to show steve and to recognize this. I consider steve a good friend. You know what . Everyone in Congress Considers him a good friend, including our democratic colleagues who disagree with him. They know this is a good man who is trying to serve his country. It was so good to have him back. There was a feeling throughout that room of just real emotion and knowing the great challenge that he had had. Hes back with us now. Hes a little bit of an emblem of the troubled times that were living in, the fact that he had to go through this experience, that he was attacked under the circumstances. It was a powerful moment, one that im sure ill remember when i look back on my years in congress. Thanks again for helping me share that with the American People. That was important for us to have that moment. Definitely a good thing to see him back at work today. Yeah. Can agree with you on that. Utah republican congressman Chris Stewart. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Always a pleasure. And after much pressure the Trump Administration just lifted shipping restrictions for the devastated island of puerto rico. What does it mean for the 3. 6 million americans who desperately need help . Well head live to the island and speak with puerto ricos secretary of state. And that White House Press briefing with Sarah Huckabee sanders is set to start in just about 8 minutes or so. 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Territory, nearly half of the island still does not have drinking water, power, food, fuel and money are also in short supply. And if you do find one of those necessities down there, youre going to have to wait in a long line to get it. What we are seeing right now is the biggest event of devastation in the modern history of puerto rico. Its a perfect storm if you will. Right now you dont have a home. Exactly. I dont have a home right now. People start getting antsy and crazy and you cant reach anybody. And you go to the airport, and theyre telling you you get canceled five times. You literally cannot get off this island. Theres no air conditioning at the airport. Theyre giving out fans. You see people fanning themselves. It is suffocating to be here. This morning President Trump waived the jones act cutting through shipping red tape and hopefully enabling food and supplies to get to the island faster. But that is just one hurdle. Getting them from the port to the people is a lot harder than expected. Weve got reporters on the ground. Lets start with cnbcs con tess ra brewer who is in the port of san juan. What is the problem . Reporter so, katy, part of the problem is that there are lines of ships loaded with cargo out in the harbor waiting to unload. In fact, theres a thousand containers on these ships. You can see this ship is docked now at one of the biggest shippers in puerto rico. The trucks are unloading it, but theres nowhere left to put these containers. Theyre at the very last bit of space, way over capacity in part they say because theres no diesel that can get the semi Truck Drivers in here to pick up the containers and move them along. The port is running on generator power to run the operations here to keep those generators running that keep the refrigerated units doled. And that is the case all over the island. Fuel and especially diesel in desperate shortage. And the trucking companies, if they can get ahold of these drivers by cell phone, the drivers then need to get gasoline in their cars so they can get to work. When they get to work, if they can get to work, they need to get into their trucks which they need to have diesel to do. Because of all this back load, the Cargo Containers here, 10,000 of them, katy, stuck in the port of san juan. Those supplies are not getting to the people who desperately need them. Contessa, what is the work around for that . Does the military need to come in and just take over the zrings of this across the island . Do you need to get fuel in there first . How do you start to get this line of aid moving again . Its a great question. Its the question that everyone is asking. But theres no magic solution to distributing fuel. The department of defense is here onsite. Its working closely with fema on logistics, along with the governor of puerto rico and the mayors of puerto rico, theyre tackling it. We watched fema making fuel deliveries a priority. Driving fuel container trucks off of this yard and to the places that desperately need it. But because the supply chain is broken because cell phones are down, because roads are still blocked in some cases and power lines are down, its just an issue of this logistical circle that needs to be repaired in whole. And by the way, you heard brock long telling earlier on msnbc saying weve got to make do with the Truck Drivers that we have on the island because getting more Truck Drivers from the main land, as some are requesting and some are asking, but theres limited slots at the airport. They have, you know, a very limited number of flights come in every day and theyre bringing not only in Emergency Management personnel but doctors and nurses and other people who are desperately needed for the recovery effort. And thats probably the last thing that people want to hear that theres a logistic cal issue thats not allowing those ships in the harbor to get those supplies that are on those ships to the port and that the stuff sitting in those containers behind you, contessa to people who desperately need. Remember, there are hospitals that dont have power. There are people who cant refrigerate things like insulin. You cant get the medical help you need. Water is running low on all parts of the island. Food is running low. People are basically at a stand still because they dont have fuel in their own cars to get around. So i think hearing that they dont know how to fix the lodge stick cal chain is probably greatly frustrating. Contessa brewer probably not that they dont know how to. Its not that they dont know how to. It just takes time to do it. Theyre working on it and theres probably nobody better in the world at logistics than the u. S. Military. Theyre here. It takes time. And patience is in short supply. And frankly you just dont have that much time when youre in desperate need of medical help or supplies or insulin or things like that. Thank you so much. And good luck down there, my friend. And as supplies come in people are trying to get out. Theyre trying to leave the island. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez has been with people waiting to get on board a cruise ship thats going to bring them to florida. Were here in the cruise port in san juan where hundreds of people have gathered to make it on a cruise ship and evacuate here in the aftermath of hurricane maria. As we walk down this line you can see how many people have gathered here. Royal caribbean adventure of the satisfies which as you can see is right there and it got to port yesterday. And its expected to leave at some point today. And then make a stop np st. Croix as well as saint thomas on its way to the u. S. Mainland. Weve been speaking with many people here and they have desperately wanted to evacuate. Many of them are american tourists that have been here, been here since the beginning of the storm. Others are puerto rico residents who want to move to the u. S. Mainland because the aftermath has been so difficult here in puerto rico. And im here joined by your name, man, cynthia. Cynthia is my name, yes. Youre from puerto rico and youre trying to move with your family. Yes. To the u. S. Mainland. How difficult have the past few days been. Well, it has been very, very difficult. Puerto rico is devastated because of this hurricane. But we have seen so much cooperation from everybody, but for me, its very, very bittersweet. Im leaving my brother, my sister, my nef useless and a lot of family that i know they are here and looking forward to how difficult was the decision to evacuate. It was very difficult but my daughter told me, mom, you have to come. This has been an island that has been economically in a very bad situation for the last years, and now with this hurricane, together with the economic situation, the federal government does not help us, we are not going any place. And its an island that its i think we deserve puerto rico, their people and all of us that we are here to make it. Thank you, cynthia so much for talking to us. We really do appreciate it and i wish you safe travel. I hope you make it to the u. S. Mainland just fine. Thank you so much. Some of these travelers it will be a couple of days before they make it to the u. S. Mainland sometime next week after those other stops we were talking about. Weve been seeing the lines at the airport. Now here waiting to get on to this cruise ship. Hundreds of people in a desperate situation to evacuate. Katy, back to you. Nbcs gabe gu terr rez in puerto rico. Thank you. And if youre sitting at home or work and wondering how in the world you can help the good news is that there are a lot of ways to do so. We have got a list of organization on our website nbc news. Com slash puerto rico. Weve compiled them all there in one easy place. Next, social media and election interference. Twitter is on the hill answering questions about how russia allegedly used social media to miss direct, miss inform and mislead the American Public in 2016. Were also still waiting for Sarah Huckabee sanders to start todays press briefing. We will about to her as soon as she takes the podium. Ys, we get a gift for mom and dad. And every year, we split it equally. Except for one of us. I write them a poem instead and one for each of you too that ones actually yours. That one. Regardless, were stuck with the bill. To many, words are the most valuable currency. Last i checked, stores dont take words. Some do. Not everyone can be the poetic voice of a generation. I know, right . 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It would be useful to understand what these social Media Outlets are doing to protect the public. I expect these companies to be straight with the committee and with the American People, tell us what happened and in particular whats going to be done to make sure it doesnt happen again. Twitter isnt the only platform with a problem. Facebook is also under fire after it admitted that a Russian Company bought more than 100 thouds worth of adds on hat both issues. And joining us now here in our washington newsroom carol lee and in new york axios media reporter sarah fisher. Carol, nice to see in person number one. Good to be here in washington. I know twitter is behind closed doors today with their various committees. What do lawmakers want to get out of this . I think the key thing that they want to know is what exactly twitter found in terms of russian activity on their platform. Thats the big question that they havent had answered. Twitter has not been as forthcoming and in the mix as facebook has. As you mentioned. They also want to know what they found and what theyre going to do about it because this is only going to become more of an issue that the platform is more sophisticated as outsiders like russia and other entities like get more sophisticated doing it, whether its video or audio or things like that. And so they want to know how this is going to go. Other corporations and companies and businesses and fields have a certain responsibility to make sure that they are operating in an ethical and a fair way. This is obviously a very new world this idea of social media and the reach it could have and the possibilities for misinformation and for not what the president likes to call fake news, you know, in the Mainstream Media but actual fake news that is not true and the way it can disrupt a president ial campaign, disrupt life in a small town as we saw in the new york ims too in a great article about twin falls in idaho which you should check out if you havent read it. Does this mean that we are going to see some further, i guess, regulation of twitter and facebook and other social media platforms . Its a great because weve seen a resistance among the Tech Companies to regulation in the same way and yet this has raised a huge question about how, you know, were in television, right, all of that is regulated in terms of who can advertise and theres transparency and we havent seen that. And this puts these companies on their heels a little bit and is actually prompting them to put forward ways that theyre saying theyre going to proactively deal with it. Whether they do that or not Congress Seems pretty intent on trying to put some time type of regulations on how they function and transparency in terms of who is doing what on their sites. We have the fcc. Facebook has been as carol was just saying forthcoming than twitter has. What is facebook how is that going to affect how the lawmakers react . I mean, it has a huge effect. When you take a look at what facebook has revealed, theyve revealed it publicly. They put out a blog post. They had a 100,000 worth of ads. The other key thing is think about what senator warner has been saying this whole time. Facebook and twitter have totally different Business Model ds. Its much easier to create a fake account on twitterment its part of the way their awe then taking works. It wouldnt surprise anybody that they have a bigger bot problem. A lot of these reports wouldnt necessarily sa ply to same scale on facebook. So they have two very Different Things that we have to get to the bottom to when it comes to both companies and i think lawmakers as carol mentioned are trying to figure out ways, one, to push them to be more transparent and two, to regulate advertising and potentially content differently on both platforms. And if you watch this program youll know that cliff van zblant has been talking about this thing for months about the effect it had with social media and what will exactly social media how susceptible it is to things like bots or people in their mothers basements or just dont want to put a nasty comment about various people in the news from now and again. Very serious topic, though. Nbc news carol lee and sarah fisher of axios. Ladies, thank you very much. Thank you. Next, the price of prices flights. Whats going on with trumps cabinet. And all those costly private air flights. Is someone in the Trump Administration about to get fired . But before we hit a break, a president ial reunion at the president s cup. Bill clinton, george w. Bush and barak obama all at the Liberty National golf club in new jersey to help tee off the International Golf match. Youll three have previously served as the cups honary chairman. But this is the first time the president s have attended the tournament together. People would stare. Psoriasis does that. It was tough getting out there on stage. I wanted to be clear. I wanted it to last. So i kept on fighting. I found something that worked. And keeps on working. Now . They see me. See me. See if cosentyx could make a difference for you cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Find clear skin that can last. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Never give up. See me. See me. Clear skin can last. Dont hold back. Ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts. We did not get to secretary price, but i imagine Sarah Huckabee sanders will be asked about it, among other things, including puerto rico and the tax plan. Let us take a listen to Sarah Huckabee sanders. Administrator long has also briefed members of the senate this morning and members of house this afternoon. The full weight of the United States government is engaged to ensure that food, water, health care and other life saving resources are making it to the people in need. At the request of the governor who is doing a terrific job, the president waived the jones act. This will ensure that ample resources are making it to the island, but we will continue to focus on the challenge of distributing those resources. The island setting presents logistical hurdles that does not exist on the mainland where trucks around the country can converge on disaster areas. 10,000 federal government relief workers are there until 7,200 troops are now on the island and working tirelessly to get people what they need. We have priority teased life saving resources to hospital and can report that 44 of the ills 69 hoptsds are now fully operational. The army corps of engineers is spearheading a massive mobilization to restore power. And this began with providing the diesel fuel necessary for sustainable emergency Power Generation. They are also working to restore longterm Power Generation and distribution around the island. Theres a long way to go, but we will not rest until everyone is safe and secure. Our message to the incredible people of puerto rico is this. The president is behind you. We all are. The entire country. Your unbreakable spirit is an inspiration to us all. We are praying for you. We are working for you. And we will not let you down. As you all know, the president traveled to indianapolis, indiana yesterday to roll out a framework for delivering tax reloaf to hardworking americans. Our framework is based on four key ideas. First we will cut taxes for the everyday hardworking americans. Second, we will make the tax code simple, fair and easy to understand. Third, we will cut taxes on american businesses to restore our Competitive Edge and create more jobs and higher wages for american workers. And finally, our framework encourages American Companies to bring back the trillions and trillions of dollars in wealth thats parked overseas. Robin held man owns a small printing and Digital Services business in indianapolis. Robin and her husband roger bought the business in 1991 and have since trimmed in size. They both work full time in the shop and employ three additional people. As robin zroo ibz it, her family is living the american dream. However, robin feels Small Businesses in our country have been neglected and in her words put on the back burner. But shes now excited about what the president and congressional leaders are proposing. She believes this tax cut will be a boone not just for her Small Business but also for her customers. Robin relies on Small Businesses to take risks and make investments in Marketing Campaigns that require printing services. Robin is thrilled about the possibility of the tax code being simplified to allow the average taxpayer such as herself to save time and money and that they can invest in their families and their business. People like robin are at the heart of the president s tax relief plan. To talk more about the tax relief plan, id like to bring up nes director gary cohn and after gather takes a few of your questions, well also have tom bossert up to answer some questions specific to the hurricane real estate leaf efforts. And then ill come up for more general if you guys are insistent and have other topics you want to cover. Thanks. Thanks, sarah. I was going to make some opening remarks and i think i wont because you covered a few of them. A couple things i will say is like the president has made his goals very clear what he wants to achieve here with tax reform and cutting taxes in the United States. I think you know where we are in the process. The group of six has been working really well together. Were now in the hands of congress. We want to go through a normal regular process both in the senate and the house, and were working well with both tax drafting committees. And the committees will continue to work and theyre working really well and really quickly. And were trying to drive tax reform as quickly as we can. I think you know that the basic premise behind it, im not going to take you through what weve talked about before. You know, again, the question we get asked a lot so ill say it right now. We have to make some basic assumptions right now on where were going to end up with the brackets, but ill tell you based on our assumptions a typical family earning 100,000 with two children that has been a standard deduct or, has used the standard deduction, continues to use the about 1,000. Thats where it is. Were doing to get to that and with that i think ill open it up to questions and see whats on your mind. Gary, the big is criticisms, and one criticism to be relevant for that by eliminating local and state deductions certain people suffer. Obviously itemized. Is that a hard and fast red line with you or are you willing to give that up . And our thing is based on rates. Simp if you think what were doing. And we are stuck, committed to it and sticking with it. Because they itemize. And American Families tote itemize. And talking 25 . Going from were expanding the zero rate up to 24,000 for that family. First 24,000 of income they will pay zero on. Lowering the 15 rate down to 12 . The next rate will be 12 . Were doing things to help that family. Were expanding parameters for child care greatly. Moving the upper bound to be eligible for child care up to a substantial higher income level so that family may be eligible for more and more credits. You have to look at this plan in its entirety. One thing i would beg you all to do is dont look at any one piece. Look at the plan in its entirety. Thats how were looking at tax reform. At it in its entirety. Followup on what john was asking, standardized deduction versus itemized. People think if you dissuade people from itemizing youre going to suppress the real estate market. People wont be interested in buying homes because they wont need to use itemized deductions. Can you address this . First of all protecting the mortgage Interest Deduction and Home Builders came out in favor of our tax plan. The number one reason why people buy homes is theyre xipted and optimistic about the economy. Have a job today feel confident theyll have a job tomorrow and kids will get a job and spouse has a job, upward mobility and feel good about the economy. Thats when people buy homes. Weve not been in in situation in neshg the last decade. We have to get america back to a place where people feel excited and exuberant about the economy. When they do that theyll go out, spend money, by homes. People dont buy homes because of the mortgage deduction. 75 of families dont use itemized deductions. How do you ensure wealthy taxpayers dont abuse the plan . Great question. Weve spent enormous amount of time on the antiabuse. The last thing we want to see is wealthy individuals or wealthy groups or families move their tax rate down from the 35 rate to a 25 rate. We are spending time on that. The tax writers at both the house and senate are acutely aware of this issue. Weve got language on it. You will see the language as we deliver more of the details. If its today, though, im the specific is were acutely aware of that. Guys like myself should not be allowed to put their assets into a partnership and reduce our Tax Liability by 10 . What do you two things about one thing you said this morning something the president said yesterday pup said you couldnt guarantee necessarily that no middle class taxpayers would actually pay more taxes under this plan, and because of the details you talked about before that is a real possibility. Some cal dags culations lower ia few dollars, not more than that savings. Is it a red line for you and the president all middle class taxpayers see a cut under this plan and secondly the president said yesterday this tax cut would not help him and said in indiana it would be bad for him. The little we know about his finances, get a big cut on the am save Something Like 31 million. On passthrough income save 16. 5 Million Dollars and save a lot not paying estate taxes, his heirs would. How can he say that this is not a plan that will help him . Its what the American People are concerned about their financial position. Theyre concerned when they go to work every week and get their paycheck how much do they get to keep . How much goes in their pocket versus the governments . How much versus sending to the government. If we allow a family to keep another 1,000 of their income, what does that mean . Renovate their kitchen. Buy a new car. They can take a family vacation. They can increase their lifestyle. Thats what our tax plan is to do. Our tax plan is aimed to return more income back to hard working americans. What were trying to do here. Gary speaking of passthroughs and the president saying that this tax plan wouldnt benefit him. Dont you think it would be a good idea if the president proved that by releasing his tax returns . I said were trying to do here, and working on in the white house, to increase the lifestyle of american citizens. Our hardworking citizens that get up every morning and work as hard as any people in the world to try and keep more of their hardearned income. Thats what were all about. Thats what our tax plans about. Our tax plan is trying to get the economy, to get the growth rate back to a normalized rate above 3 . Yes, just had a quarter of 3. 1 gdp. People didnt think we could get that 3. 1 gdp at a while. Were there. Can we go higher . 1 of gdp meanses 3ds trillion more than pays for a tax cut. What were trying to do with our tax plan. If you cant guarantee that all middle class americans wont see or some middle class americans wont see taxes go up, does that contradict the central promise of the plan to help all middle class americans . Our tax plan is aimed at making sure we give middle class americans a tax cut. We are going to give middle class americans a tax cut. What we are spending all our time on doing and have lots of tools at our disposal to make sure we do that and what were going to do. Can you guarantee that all i said this morning and ill say it again. I could read my statement from this morning. I liked it so much this morning id say it to you again. I cannot guarantee that. You could find me someone in the country that their taxes may not go down. Remember, we have 50 states, counties, cities. We have longterm Capital Gains, shortterm Capital Gains and all different types of structures in the tax code. I guarantee you, ill guarantee you, you could find someone in this country, maybe one person who their taxes may not go down. Can you walk us through the timeline for how you think the tax rate committees will get through this and what confidence do you have that given whats happened so far this year on capitol hill that they will actually get this done . Secondly, why do you decide to stay at the white house in the wake of charlottesville . So im very confident that the house and the senate are working as quickly as they can. If you look at chairman brady right now, and what hes doing in the house ways and means committee, they are working, came in on sunday to start working on the tax plan. They are continuing to work every day. Chairman brady said they will get through the tax plan as quickly as they can. We hope wed get through the house in october. We would hope to be in the senate in november. And hope to have a bill done by this year. Why am i hear . Im here just for this reason think about the opportunity that im involved in with President Trump and able to rewrite the tax code . Something that hasnt been done for 31 years. The amount of impact we can have on the u. S. Economy and u. S. Citizens in changing the forward outlook of the United States, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and i would never miss this. Gary, one followup and my question, done with tax wreform you will no longer be at the white house. There are many one Time Opportunities at the white house. And on the Child Tax Credit we heard ivanka trump talk an, can you give us any kind of description as to what that will look like . I know its still being written but what is the goal here . Refundable . What are some of the broad elements. We said in the outline yesterday if you read it. The existing child care credit is refundable and will stay refundable. The additional money put into the credit will be nonrefundable. We want to encourage people to work and people have taxable income to take the credit against. The sidze were working out. A range in hind . We have a range in mind. Yes. Can you give that . Continuing to work on that range. Again, working on delivering a large middle income tax cut to american workers, one they rightfully deserve. Back of the room. Thanks. And it said that the plan will add 2. 2 trillion to the deficits. Are they wrong . We think theyre wrong. But we think theyre wrong because the way they score. But lets not argue if theyre right or wrong. Lets not argue that. We firmly believe that this tax plan will have a dramatic impact on Economic Growth. We know that 1 change in gdp will add 3 trillion back. So if theyre right, were only going to pay down 800 billion to the deficit. Ill live with that paid up. Thank you, gary. Appreciate the opportunity. On the corporate side, your critics say on the repatriation of overseas assets history Shows Companies dont alw
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